~ A Little Q&A ~

From time to time

 I get questions asked of me about my rug hooking 

and my wonky-way of doing things.

here are a few answers ~

"How high are your loops?"

 I pull my loops as high as my largest strip of wool....

I tend to hook with different widths of wool all on one rug, from 3/8" up to a 9 cut.

If the largest strip I'm working with is a 9 cut, then I will pull all of my loops up to that height...even the 7 cut will be pulled up to match the height of the 9 cut so it doesn't get 'lost' between rows.

BUT that is not always necessarily consistent for me either! if I am hooking a rug and really want it to look old & worn, then I will intentionally hook my smaller strips {such as an outline or beauty line} lower than the rest of the surrounding loops, so they 'sink in' a bit.

Instant Age!

"How to you achieve detail on your faces suing a larger cut?"

After I hook the general outline of the motif 

{in this case, the witch's profile below and the moon's profile under that} I will simply turn my wool strips with my loop lifter or fingers to manipulate the way the loops go.

see her pointy nose? I turned the very tip of her nose to make it go an almost opposite direction from the loops along her brow, down the bridge.

Then I fill-in the rest making sure not to over-pack my loops.

"How do you hide your tails?"

 I don't!

 I don't mind them at all...they lend an old look and texture to my rugs.

But I make sure not to have lots of tails all together in one place...spread them around a bit.

you can see the tree trunk {below} has tails smack dab in the middle where two colors have met.

"How do you color plan your rugs?" 

I have a favorite color palette that I use, 

which I have based off of a DMC cotton floss color palette.

I favor more muted tones, rather than brights ~

 but have no problem mixing in a little 'poison' to make motifs spark!

I will look at each motif on my rug design, and color plan each one separately

 ~ from there, if a color doesn't fit in with the rest, out it goes!

I love black-browns, green-blacks, orange-reds, golden-mustards, yellow-greens, olive-greens, yellow-blues, and greyish-taupes.

I hand dye some of my wools {using Pro Chem} and really should dye more!} but also love using as-is wools from The Wool Studio & Heavens To Betsy.

"Where is you favorite place to hook?"

I have to say in my garden. 

The natural light is superb, and I enjoy the birds, bees and occasional kitten for company ;)

I also love hooking outside because there is less wool dust to clean up HA!

Aside from there, I hook in our Keeping Room and/or my Sewing Room here in the farmhouse,

or out in the Farm Shop.

"What is your preferred backing to hook on?"

I prefer Dorr Mill's bleached linen.

it is nice & bright, sturdy, and can accommodate all of my different wool strips nicely...

and it is virtually 'hairless' and not scratchy. Hooks Like Buttah!

"What kind of tools do you use?"

~ I prefer to use my steel shank primitive hook that Peter makes, it pulls a 7 up to a 10 cut wonderfully and doesn't 'snag' the wool.

I use my off-set scissors or a small pair of Fiskar snips while I'm working.

 I use a Fraser 500 clamp-style cutter, on a Stripper's Tote© that Peter designed to hold it ~ 

and I use his Hookinpunch© Adjustable Gripper Frame.

"How long have you been a hooker?"

a long time....I think this will mark my 30th year, as I began my journey into rug hooking right after Peter & I were married in October of 1987.

*wow*

"Do you teach?" 

~ yep.

love to travel! have hook & broom will travel! 

I am a super-informal teacher, just ask anyone who has been in one of my classes ;)

I also teach here in our Farm Shop and hold weekly Hook In's on Saturdays.

in a wooly-nutshell, 

...there you have it to the best of my ability.

***FORGOT TO ADD***
that there will be NO Needle Night tonight, looking forward to seeing everyone on the 16th for our Gathering of Primitive Friends Show :)
Needle Night will resume in October, with the 1st monday night :)

Now I am off to finish the background on When Pigs Fly!

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Blessings from the Farm

 ~ Lori